Factory Freak ? (Full Version)

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Factory Freak ?

  

Sick C5 -> Factory Freak ? (9/10/2008 1:45:16 PM)

I have an 02 a4 lt3 c5 with a superchip from 03 and just a regular oem replacement K&N air filter.

I do have the tendency to street race as well as race at the track, I''ve raced 3 other Vettes, all C6s and surprisingly Ive pulled on them all.

The first one I raced at the track, it was an 05 a4, I pulled him straight off the line and had about a length and a half on him when we trapped. We ran again and the results were the same. The second I raced was an 06 automatic six speed with the z51 package, we were both pretty even throughout the run until i hit third gear at which I then began to pull ahead, when we trapped I had a lil over half a car on him. You must imagine the kind of confidence boost this was for me. I match up with 2 newer vettes, ones with bigger engines and supposedly 50 moe horsepower and I beat them both. I was amazed, but I figured it may have been that I just had better traction.

So then last Saturday I go back to Dallas for the weekend and I decide to hit up the old spot where the street races usually take place. I get to the spot and as I suspected they were there. As soon as I park my car, some guy runs over to me and tells me his friend has an 07 stock Vette and he wants to run me.. so I pull up to the line and the guy in the newer Vette next to me is only a year or two older than me, and of course he''s talkin a big game, "im gonna beat the brakes off that old vette" this and that. SO anyways, the flagger signals us, we''re both ready... then... he drops his arms... we both took off identically. I spun through alot of first, and finally caught tracton in second, the guy has 3/4 of a car on me but Im actually starting to pull on him, when my car kicked into 3rd the race was over I began to quickly pull in front of the other Vette for the win. I was in shock.

We turned around and headed back to the spot, parked our cars and walked over to eachother (he was not so cocky anymore lol). I feel his back tires and come to realize that he had BF Goodrich radials, which would explain his great launch. But we were still both puzzled, how could an almost stock a4 LS1 beat a stock LS2 A6?

Throughout the week I''ve been wondering, could my car be a factory freak? I always thought that factor freaks were just myths, but now Im starting to think otherwise.

  
Lee Willis -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/10/2008 3:57:54 PM)

First, did you buy the car new so that you know it has no other mods?  Factory freaks are really a myth - sometimes you get a really good car but not 50 HP worth.

Assuming yours is stock (or near to it, the mods you mention can''t be doing too much), then I would guess that your car has the performance axle ratio offered with the automatic and the others don''t.  That would make your car come off the line like it had an extra 35 of so HP, close enough that if the other car have heavy options or dirty aircleaners, etc, the race would be yours.

Sick C5 -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/10/2008 4:53:47 PM)

The car was purchased new.. it doesnt have the performance rear end, and the last guy I ran against took me off the line pretty good... I only caught up with him after I hit 3rd... Im still baffled...

Lee Willis -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/10/2008 6:33:41 PM)

Well then, if yours is stock, you should have lost those races. Were the other guys cheap and running low-octane fuel of something?  Hard to explain: you''re down 50 HP on them and that is about 3-4 tenths in the quarter: 3 or 4 lengths.

But you just don''t get nearly 15% additional HP extra from a factory freak: if the engine was capable of that much additional power when "everything just worked out perfectly" GM would tighten production tolerances to get things to work out more often so that that power or close to it would be in every engine it would be the cheapest way to get that extra power. 

It would be interesting to track this down.  You might have it dynoed just to see what it does, any good dyno shop will have a baseline value for a typical A4 LS1 based on other cars they''ve run, so they can tell you if yours really is special.  If not, then you just win on the basis of better launch of a better tune, etc.  You could run against a C5 ZO6: that should kill you by about 5 or more lengths.  If you run with that, you have something special. 

Sick C5 -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/10/2008 7:29:40 PM)

They were all running regular fuel as well as I. (91 octane) Id like to have it Dynoed soon, it''s on my "To-Do List" for the next time I goto Dallas.

Sunday night I raced my Dad''s 08 Z51 from a 60 (2nd gear) on the highway... I hung with him through 3rd until I hit 4th... I believe we were going about 115 or so when he finally started noticably pulling on me (id say about 4 or 5 mph). I was impressed as was he. Maybe the way I maximized my shift pressure and shift points with my tuner made the difference? Maybe it''s not that my car has alot more power than stock, but its the way it''s distributed??

BTW, we were then pulled over by a Texas State Trooper as we came over a hill at 100+. He was highly pissed, threatened to take us both to jail for reckless endangerment. We tried to reason with him by mentioning the fact that there was no traffic around for miles, but in the end we both still recieved tickets. Mine for 102 in a 65 and my father''s for 98 in a 65.[sm=guilty.gif]

Haha I think Im going to take it to the track a lil more often from now on... Temtation is a B!*ch

Lee Willis -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/11/2008 11:24:43 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sick C5

. . . Mine for 102 in a 65 and my father''''s for 98 in a 65.[sm=guilty.gif]



Well, you have written proof by an unbiased public servant that you were going faster, but probably the cop just knows you were both doing "about 100" and he gave you the ticket over 100 (it''ll cost a lot more, I know ''cause I got tickets in Texas years ago, get clocked above 100 and they get really nasty in court) while your dad is just below that threshold.  Cop probably just wanted to be a bad-ass they do pick on young drivers.

Sick C5 -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/11/2008 11:45:33 AM)

They start charging a certain amount per mph over 25 mph over the speed limit, make sense?

We were in a 65 mph zone, so 25 over would be 90 mph. Im going to get fined a certain $ amount for each of those 1 miles. Im nt sure what it is yet, but I know it won''t be cheap [sm=badidea.gif]


Lee Willis -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/11/2008 3:11:55 PM)

Yeah, its a big fine you both are looking at.  But I know from experience and observation that the psychological impact of a three-digit speed in court.  102 might seem like only 4 miles per hour over 98 mph, but juries and judges tend to cut a guy more slack under 100 than over.

I was in a similar situation once: over 100 with a buddy, not really racing (the cop admitted it did not look like a race) but side by side almost.  Thought we were headed for jail.  We told the judge sort of the truth, that my friend, going just a bit faster than me, had had a problem with his car smoking at full throttle but we couldn''t find anything in the garage and decided to find a "deserted" road and he''d past me at high speed to see if I could tell whether the smoke was coming out the exhaust or from underneath the car (turns out leaking rings allowed pressure to build up in the crankcase and blew the distick out, and it was oil dripping out onto the manifolds and smoking from underneath the car.) We told all this to the judge convincingly and consistently.  (Acutally, we knew that already, we were just having fun.

Anyway, the judge lectured us about speeding even in a good cause of diagnosing our car problems and told us to take it to a professional shop next time, but she reduced the charge to 79 in a 55 (i.e., not over 25 mph above the limit).   Saved us a bundle.

Not suggesting you lie, you know (I''d never do that), but the facts in your case sort of match, plus you can prove you are related to one another and your ''vette is the older (and therefore believeably more prone to some difficult-to-diagnose flaw due to age).

Sick C5 -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/11/2008 5:26:49 PM)

NICE!

I figured Id just bend over and take it like a man, but Im always up for a lil white fib that can save me a few hundred bucks. (As log as it''s not hurtng anyone, of course)

I suppose I could tell the judge a story sort of like yours, I just have to clue my dad in on it. It wouldn''t surprise me if he said something to the effec of "Son, I know it would help us both out, but Im not going to teach you to lie. I have to set a prime example and thats not how I raised you."




 

Lee Willis -> RE: Factory Freak ? (9/11/2008 6:05:16 PM)

Nah, your dad is smart: tell all the truth and they could even get nasty and say he was contributing to the deliquency of his son by encouraging him to race/speed at least the judge would come down like a hard ass on him.  Either plead nothing or have a good story like I did. 

  

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